owners who "really look after it"

I bought my current T-Max of this Italian fellow in Melbourne. I have often wondered how little sympathy most motorcycle owners have for their bikes, and how much less they often understand them. (as an aside, Matthew B Crawford has an excellent book on this and its relationship to NPD, consider this a strong recommendation for reading that).

I've documented here already my experience with the variator (and I'd explicitly asked if the variator had been touched, to which I was told no). So clearly he's bullshitting me or he's a fool (allowing his mechanic to fuck him over), or both.

It was lovingly cleaned and adorned with stickers and clearly he loved it ... its just when it came to anything mechanical (like most narcisists of every level) was technically a dunce.

The most common bullshit given to a new owner is "I just had it serviced" ... and of course if they're a dipshit they'll believe it. Myself I just assumed it had not been serviced and changed the oil and filter in the engine straight away after I got it.

So, as its belt time I thought I'd do the rear (fully enclosed) chain oil.

My first glance at the dipstick made me think "oh fuck" ... So when I took this muck out I was aghast ... it was the filthiest shit I've ever seen.

So basically I put in the new oil and again shook my head at the level of maintenance this bike has had.

That its still working so well after over 100,000Km on the dial is a testimony to Yamaha.

Some people seem to think that all a vehicle needs is to be washed and spoken with nicely.

For reference the bike has a two stage chain that's fully enclosed and neatly tucked away from view (and harm) in the swingarm.

The first stage runs from the pivot to about half way, then (and you can see the swingarm step out) it has a second run to the final sprocket at the axle.

This means that the rear sprocket can be smaller (to fit in) while still allowing the "normal" gearing up.

The chain is thus protected from all the muck in the environment, is quiet, makes no mess, and only needs the oil changing every 10,000km

Its a peach to change, take off that black cover (two screws, and use the right size screwdriver, and be prepared to use an impact tool to tap it into moving (it might never have been taken off),  you take out the dip-stick (often tight), loosen the drain plug at the back and dump the oil ... takes like 5 minutes and is actually slated in the service manual for doing every 10,000 (I've been known to leave it in there for 30,000 if the oil I'm seeing on the dipstick looks ok).

Simple and cheap, yet still people don't do it ... fucked if I know.